[2] HelpSmith allows a technical writer to create documentation in various formats, such as HTML Help (CHM), Web Help (HTML-based help system), PDF, ePub, and Markdown.

Version 1.0 of HelpSmith was released in 2007 as a help authoring tool that had support for a single HTML Help (CHM) format.

On February 7, 2008, HelpSmith was presented on the Giveaway of the Day website where the product received initial feedback and feature requests from its users.

[4] Similarly to common help authoring tools, HelpSmith includes a word processor to edit the content of help topics, customizable templates, user-defined variables, the ability to import existing documentation, media files management tools, support for various output formats,[5] conditional compilation capabilities, and other functions.

The Image Tool also has support for control annotations which can be used for creation of user interface documentation.